[ManPowa]

Hey guys. I know I'm making this a bit early. But I flopped this exam in June so this is a Re-take for me. Im just getting ready for the big exam. U see it's the exam, for most people that will make or break them. So, post Ur thoughts on whats gonna come up, how Your revising for it and once the exam is over: tell me ya thoughts!!

I would also like to point out that this exam is now 2 hours long; Where before it was 1 hr 45 mins.

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications...ogy/index.html

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[intellectual1]

(Original post by ManPowa)
Hey guys. I know I'm making this a bit early. But I flopped this exam in June so this is a Re-take for me. Im just getting ready for the big exam. U see it's the exam, for most people that will make or break them. So, post Ur thoughts on whats gonna come up, how Your revising for it and once the exam is over: tell me ya thoughts!!

I would also like to point out that this exam is now 2 hours long; Where before it was 1 hr 45 mins.

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications...ogy/index.html

Yes it is quite true, F215, indeed determines the difference between one, two, three and in some cases four grades...a high score in F215 can make a huge difference.

Just know all the topics well, and remember to know your AS and F214 knowledge very well, as synoptic assessment will expect you to make use of that knowledge.

[undertaker1]

(Original post by ManPowa)
Hey guys. I know I'm making this a bit early. But I flopped this exam in June so this is a Re-take for me. Im just getting ready for the big exam. U see it's the exam, for most people that will make or break them. So, post Ur thoughts on whats gonna come up, how Your revising for it and once the exam is over: tell me ya thoughts!!

I would also like to point out that this exam is now 2 hours long; Where before it was 1 hr 45 mins.

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications...ogy/index.html

yes mate; im glad i'm not alone. i did this exam in jan 2011 got a B somehow.
retaking it now as i am on gap year and planning on getting A*.
hows the revision going so far?

[ManPowa]

Hows it going guys??? we need to get this active

[-Haz-]

I’ve just started my revision for this exam, although it’s my first time doing it so we’ve yet to cover everything in class. Don’t know about anyone else but I’m finding it a lot harder than the AS exams. I find ecology fairly easy, but the protein synthesis and the inheritance stuff is a nightmare.

Anyone got any ideas on what has a good chance of coming up? I’ve been looking over the past exams and nothing particularly stands out as having never come up.

[undertaker1]

(Original post by -Haz-)
I’ve just started my revision for this exam, although it’s my first time doing it so we’ve yet to cover everything in class. Don’t know about anyone else but I’m finding it a lot harder than the AS exams. I find ecology fairly easy, but the protein synthesis and the inheritance stuff is a nightmare.

Anyone got any ideas on what has a good chance of coming up? I’ve been looking over the past exams and nothing particularly stands out as having never come up.

i reckon protein synthesis and meiosis, and all that genetics stuff. ive still have to make a start on revision for this exam, been concentrating on f214 so far.

[ManPowa]

(Original post by undertaker1)
i reckon protein synthesis and meiosis, and all that genetics stuff. ive still have to make a start on revision for this exam, been concentrating on f214 so far.

How are you revising for this? Care to share any tips.

[undertaker1]

(Original post by ManPowa)
How are you revising for this? Care to share any tips.

lol i am resitting this papers so i actually understand the vast majority of the specification- i just need to revise it again.

well basically i never used to do biology past papers as i thought it was a waste of time as they exams are so random lol.
however i am currently towards the end of my f214 revision and i have done loads of past papers and i have found them very useful.

firstly i would recommend spending about 1-2 hours on each spread in the heinemann book and then try answering the questions at the end. i find them very useful and most definitely attempt the stretch and challenge questions.
1-2 hours may seem abit long however i just end up just looking at the pages for ages and then everyone begings to make sense lol- and when it comes to an exam question and you get stuck try and think where about the question would be in the book, and then where abouts on the page itself. i might sound a little stupid here however for a module lile F215 this is useful.
even if you cant answer the questions at the end of the spread just look at the answers and then try answering the question the next day.

secondly instead of reading the book i sometimes just watch youtube videos randomly on specific topics such as meiosos, and then read the book and it makes more sense to me lol. or instead of reading i sometimes pick out key words from the spread and try and explain the topic to myself by using all the key words--- if you can do this then you heading in the right direction

good luck

[AreebWithaHat]

(Original post by undertaker1)
lol i am resitting this papers so i actually understand the vast majority of the specification- i just need to revise it again.

well basically i never used to do biology past papers as i thought it was a waste of time as they exams are so random lol.
however i am currently towards the end of my f214 revision and i have done loads of past papers and i have found them very useful.

firstly i would recommend spending about 1-2 hours on each spread in the heinemann book and then try answering the questions at the end. i find them very useful and most definitely attempt the stretch and challenge questions.
1-2 hours may seem abit long however i just end up just looking at the pages for ages and then everyone begings to make sense lol- and when it comes to an exam question and you get stuck try and think where about the question would be in the book, and then where abouts on the page itself. i might sound a little stupid here however for a module lile F215 this is useful.
even if you cant answer the questions at the end of the spread just look at the answers and then try answering the question the next day.

secondly instead of reading the book i sometimes just watch youtube videos randomly on specific topics such as meiosos, and then read the book and it makes more sense to me lol. or instead of reading i sometimes pick out key words from the spread and try and explain the topic to myself by using all the key words--- if you can do this then you heading in the right direction

good luck

Oh hi, I took this A2 early in year 12 and achieved 86/90 in Jan, 48/60 in ISA and 118/150 for june. Still achieved an A but I'm resitting this year for an A* because I'm a grade whore lol. Control, genomes and environment wont get me this time. How else are you revising? This is my brief plan:
So far revised topics 2, 3 and 4, so genetic engineering, ecosysytems and muscles and plants etc. Just the gentics topic 1 left to do, hopefully by yhis time next week. Then I have 2 full months to do practise papers, stretch and challenge etc. So far, I'm only using the big fat official OCR book, do you recommend any others or do you think this will cover everything?

Oh and btw lol, I did exact same as you, did a minimum amount of past papers, then when I got them marked I didnt even check my mistakes. I thought this stuff wont come up again. I think I focused too much on memorisation than applications etc, which is what all these exams are about.

[-Haz-]

Hi guys, I’m currently revising inheritance and genetic diagrams and not getting very far at all.

Anyone want to tackle this question for me and let me know how you did it?

Red-green colour blindness is caused by a sex-linked allele that is recessive to the allele for normal colour vision. In a family a boy and his grandfather both have red-green colour blindness. Is this grandfather the father of his mother or of his father?

I’ve been trying to find an answer for the past half hour and it’s driving me insane. I hate inheritance

[AreebWithaHat]

(Original post by -Haz-)
Hi guys, I’m currently revising inheritance and genetic diagrams and not getting very far at all.

Anyone want to tackle this question for me and let me know how you did it?

Red-green colour blindness is caused by a sex-linked allele that is recessive to the allele for normal colour vision. In a family a boy and his grandfather both have red-green colour blindness. Is this grandfather the father of his mother or of his father?

I’ve been trying to find an answer for the past half hour and it’s driving me insane. I hate inheritance

Hi!
Did you find the answer?
I'll answer it anyway, good for revision. This is probably a stretch and challenge question, so you have to apply your knowledge.
Lets call the normal colour allele A, and the colour blindness allele a. So either way the grandfather had the condition so he must have had the genotype YXa. As the y chromosone doesnt carry

[AreebWithaHat]

(Original post by -Haz-)
Hi guys, I’m currently revising inheritance and genetic diagrams and not getting very far at all.

Anyone want to tackle this question for me and let me know how you did it?

Red-green colour blindness is caused by a sex-linked allele that is recessive to the allele for normal colour vision. In a family a boy and his grandfather both have red-green colour blindness. Is this grandfather the father of his mother or of his father?

I’ve been trying to find an answer for the past half hour and it’s driving me insane. I hate inheritance

Hi!
Did you find the answer?
I'll answer it anyway, good for revision. This is probably a stretch and challenge question, so you have to apply your knowledge.
Lets call the normal colour allele A, and the colour blindness allele a. So either way the grandfather had the condition so he must have had the genotype YXa. As the y chromosone doesnt carry sex linked alleles. the grandfathers son (boys father) inherited the Y allele from the grandfather, so he didnt inherit the recessive allele from the grandfather, so he didnt have the disease. If the grandfather had a daughter, she would inherit his only X chromosone, and therefore inherit the recessive allele from the grandfather. So far we know that the potential son or daughter of the grandfather must have inherited Y and Xa chrmosone respectively.

However, we dont know which chrmosone they inherited from the grandmother, it must have been XA or Xa, as the grandmother has two X chrmosones, we just dont know which allele was inherited.

So if the grandfather belonged to the boyss father then the father had alleles YXA/a and if the grandfather belonged to the boys mother then she would have had genotype XaXA/a.

As the boy has the condition, he has the same genotype as the grandfather YXa. Now the boy only inherits the Y chromosone from the dad so he does not inherit the colour blindness. But the boy can inherit either chrmosone from the mother and this could be the recessive Xa chrmosone. So he could have inherited the condition and he did.

Put simply, doesnt matter what the fathers genotype is as the boy inherits the Y chromosone from the father and not the sex linked allele i.e X. But he could inherit the condition from his mother as he can inherit either of her X chrmosones, one of which we know must be recessive.

The last paragraph is the whole idea condensed into a 2 or 3 mark answer to the exam question. The rest is just to help explain to you.
Hope this helps

[ManPowa]

Good answer Areeb

Would anyone be willing to go through the whole genetics part in detail page by page according to the Official OCR book so from page 8 (Meiosis) to spread 16 (chi test). I think this is the main part from the spec that everyone finds difficult.

Also from the June 11 paper, with only 10 marks on genetics, we can see whats more likely to come up in JAN 2012.

[ManPowa]

(Original post by areebmazhar)
Hi!
Did you find the answer?
I'll answer it anyway, good for revision. This is probably a stretch and challenge question, so you have to apply your knowledge.
Lets call the normal colour allele A, and the colour blindness allele a. So either way the grandfather had the condition so he must have had the genotype YXa. As the y chromosone doesnt carry sex linked alleles. the grandfathers son (boys father) inherited the Y allele from the grandfather, so he didnt inherit the recessive allele from the grandfather, so he didnt have the disease. If the grandfather had a daughter, she would inherit his only X chromosone, and therefore inherit the recessive allele from the grandfather. So far we know that the potential son or daughter of the grandfather must have inherited Y and Xa chrmosone respectively.

However, we dont know which chrmosone they inherited from the grandmother, it must have been XA or Xa, as the grandmother has two X chrmosones, we just dont know which allele was inherited.

So if the grandfather belonged to the boyss father then the father had alleles YXA/a and if the grandfather belonged to the boys mother then she would have had genotype XaXA/a.

As the boy has the condition, he has the same genotype as the grandfather YXa. Now the boy only inherits the Y chromosone from the dad so he does not inherit the colour blindness. But the boy can inherit either chrmosone from the mother and this could be the recessive Xa chrmosone. So he could have inherited the condition and he did.

Put simply, doesnt matter what the fathers genotype is as the boy inherits the Y chromosone from the father and not the sex linked allele i.e X. But he could inherit the condition from his mother as he can inherit either of her X chrmosones, one of which we know must be recessive.

The last paragraph is the whole idea condensed into a 2 or 3 mark answer to the exam question. The rest is just to help explain to you.
Hope this helps

Good answer Areeb

Would anyone be willing to go through the whole genetics part in detail page by page according to the Official OCR book so from page 8 (Meiosis) to spread 16 (chi test). I think this is the main part from the spec that everyone finds difficult.

Also from the June 11 paper, with only 10 marks on genetics, we can see whats more likely to come up in JAN 2012.

[AreebWithaHat]

(Original post by ManPowa)
Good answer Areeb

Would anyone be willing to go through the whole genetics part in detail page by page according to the Official OCR book so from page 8 (Meiosis) to spread 16 (chi test). I think this is the main part from the spec that everyone finds difficult.

Also from the June 11 paper, with only 10 marks on genetics, we can see whats more likely to come up in JAN 2012.

I might do a few topics later I find all of gentic very easy apart from that dreaded epistasis. I just find that so confusing. I also think it would be good if we soon started posting up youtuve vids etc as they can often explain topics very well.

[AreebWithaHat]

(Original post by ManPowa)
Good answer Areeb

Would anyone be willing to go through the whole genetics part in detail page by page according to the Official OCR book so from page 8 (Meiosis) to spread 16 (chi test). I think this is the main part from the spec that everyone finds difficult.

Also from the June 11 paper, with only 10 marks on genetics, we can see whats more likely to come up in JAN 2012.

Im also thinking that muscles might come up, I havent seen many muscles questions in previous papers. Im thinking behaviour probably wont come up again and hopefully there will be much much less ecosystem etc crap.

[-Haz-]

(Original post by areebmazhar)
Hi!
Did you find the answer?
I'll answer it anyway, good for revision. This is probably a stretch and challenge question, so you have to apply your knowledge.
Lets call the normal colour allele A, and the colour blindness allele a. So either way the grandfather had the condition so he must have had the genotype YXa. As the y chromosone doesnt carry sex linked alleles. the grandfathers son (boys father) inherited the Y allele from the grandfather, so he didnt inherit the recessive allele from the grandfather, so he didnt have the disease. If the grandfather had a daughter, she would inherit his only X chromosone, and therefore inherit the recessive allele from the grandfather. So far we know that the potential son or daughter of the grandfather must have inherited Y and Xa chrmosone respectively.

However, we dont know which chrmosone they inherited from the grandmother, it must have been XA or Xa, as the grandmother has two X chrmosones, we just dont know which allele was inherited.

So if the grandfather belonged to the boyss father then the father had alleles YXA/a and if the grandfather belonged to the boys mother then she would have had genotype XaXA/a.

As the boy has the condition, he has the same genotype as the grandfather YXa. Now the boy only inherits the Y chromosone from the dad so he does not inherit the colour blindness. But the boy can inherit either chrmosone from the mother and this could be the recessive Xa chrmosone. So he could have inherited the condition and he did.

Put simply, doesnt matter what the fathers genotype is as the boy inherits the Y chromosone from the father and not the sex linked allele i.e X. But he could inherit the condition from his mother as he can inherit either of her X chrmosones, one of which we know must be recessive.

The last paragraph is the whole idea condensed into a 2 or 3 mark answer to the exam question. The rest is just to help explain to you.
Hope this helps

Thank you so much, and no I didn’t find the answer, I gave up in a fit of rage. Your explanation was very helpful

[AreebWithaHat]

(Original post by -Haz-)
Thank you so much, and no I didn’t find the answer, I gave up in a fit of rage. Your explanation was very helpful

No problem, glad it helped.

[AreebWithaHat]

(Original post by ManPowa)
Good answer Areeb

Would anyone be willing to go through the whole genetics part in detail page by page according to the Official OCR book so from page 8 (Meiosis) to spread 16 (chi test). I think this is the main part from the spec that everyone finds difficult.

Also from the June 11 paper, with only 10 marks on genetics, we can see whats more likely to come up in JAN 2012.

Here are some fantastic videos on meiosis, the guys name is sal and hes a really good teacher. They explain the process really good and its on other topics as well such as hardy-weinberg, variation etc.

http://www.khanacademy.org/video/pha...aylist=Biology